“The Little Mermaid” made moviegoers want to live under the sea this Memorial Day weekend.
Disney’s realistic remake of the 1989 animated classic Handley outperformed competition to gross $95.5 million from 4,320 screens in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
Disney projects that the film starring Halle Bailey as Ariel and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula the Sea Witch will receive $117.5 million by the end of the long weekend.
It ranks as the fifth best Memorial Day weekend opening.
The film displaced “Fast X” from the top spot. The 10th installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, starring Vin Diesel, fell far behind the previous release in Saga, grossing $23 million domestically for a two-week total of $108 million for Universal Pictures.
In its fourth weekend in theaters, the Disney and Marvel film “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” grossed nearly $20 million in theaters in the United States and Canada, and ranked third at the box office. Domestically, the film grossed $299 million.
The strong performance of “The Little Mermaid” represents something of a comeback for live-action versions of Disney’s animated classics, and raises the possibility that they’ll keep coming indefinitely. Poor reception from the public and the pandemic had caused some realistic versions to perform poorly or not be released in theaters, but through the Disney+ platform, such as “Dumbo”, “Mulan” and “Pinocchio”.
“It works as long as the film is good,” said comScore principal media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It’s great for Disney to be able to go into their archive and re-live these films that started out as big hits in the animation realm.”
The release puts “The Little Mermaid” at the top of Disney’s realistic remakes in 2019 after receiving a similar reception to “Aladdin,” though it lags far behind Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” from 2017, which earned more than $170 million. Earned Rs. million, and 2019’s “The Lion King”, which grossed over $190 million in its opening weekend.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at theaters in the United States and Canada, according to comScore:
1. “The Little Mermaid,” $95.5 million
2. “Fast X,” $23 million
3. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” $20 million
4. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $6.3 million
5. “The Machine,” $4.9 million
6. “About My Father,” $4.3 million
7. “Kandahar”, 2.4 million
8. “You Hurt My Feelings,” $1.4 million
9. “Evil Dead Rise,” $1 million
10. “Book Club, The Next Chapter,” $920,000
